Yosemite Lies: A Romantic Suspense Thriller Filled with Twists by Derek Catron

Author:Derek Catron [Catron, Derek]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Minorca Publishing
Published: 2023-07-10T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 20

In the morning, the rock face looked less intimidating than Kate had remembered. The granite wall wasn’t sheer in the way El Capitan stood almost perfectly vertical; she estimated the pitch at between sixty and forty-five degrees. And it wasn’t as smooth and round as Half Dome; a corrugated face, like cheese run through a grater, made for plenty of natural hand- and footholds. Finally, it wasn’t as high as either of Yosemite’s landmark formations; Kate guessed the wall to be no more than four stories of rock exposed by millennia of erosion from wind and rain.

“It looks almost too easy,” Veronica said, shielding her eyes with her hand as if seeking the most difficult route to test herself.

Kate guessed the climb wouldn’t seem so simple once she was alone on the rock. Like stray bangs across a furrowed brow, the twin ends of a rope dangled before them to where they coiled in a small pile on the ground.

Nash, apparently energized by the excitement of a climb, had left before dawn to reach the top along a trail that looped behind the hill. Once there, he checked the anchor he’d constructed using another rope and two trees and rappelled down to meet them. His elaborate explanation of how he’d performed the task had been lost on Kate. She trusted him to have done it right; the question now was whether she trusted herself to meet the challenge.

“It’s not as hard as it looks,” he said.

“Uh-huh,” Kate said, craning her neck to look up. From here, she couldn’t even see the top. An overhang like a fat lip obstructed the view. “My stomach feels all knotted up.”

“That’s how you know you’re alive,” Veronica said with a note of enthusiasm that would have been irritating if it hadn’t sounded feigned.

Though she’d displayed no sign of the hangover that had plagued her Sunday, she seemed tense. She’d woken early, as promised, and everything she’d said had been spoken with chirpy enthusiasm. Bruise-like crescents under her eyes and the tight set of her jaw when she thought no one was watching belied her reassurances that all was fine.

Only Kate seemed to be dragging that morning. She’d woken feeling stiff after two nights on the ground. Her sleeping pad was adequate, but it was no bed. She couldn’t lie on her hips for long before they grew sore. She never slept on her back at home. She hoped she hadn’t snored, at least not so loudly as to be heard from the other tents.

She had forgotten how much she liked kissing until Nash’s lips had met hers in the gentlest of brush strokes, repeated with more certainty once she returned the gesture, then with some urgency. With her eyes closed, her head spun with the kiss. She became aware of his strong hands pulling her against him, and she liked that too. I could kiss him all night.

Yet she’d known that wasn’t true. Eventually, his hands would grow impatient in passing over her clothed body.

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